He teaches his final class at Brandeis that fall, and in the spring he gives the first of three television interviews with Ted Koppel of Nightline. When he continues to decline, doctors run a variety of tests and in 1994 Morrie is diagnosed with ALS. A lover of dance, he has to stop when breathing becomes hard and he begins to suffer falls. Morrie's health begins to decline in his sixties, when asthma begins to make his life difficult. Mitch becomes very materially successful, although he isn’t all that happy. His uncle’s death shakes Mitch, who decides he can’t waste any more time and then earns a degree in journalism and finally settles in Detroit to work as a sports reporter. He lived in an adjacent apartment to his favorite uncle, who died of pancreatic cancer while Mitch was living there. At his graduation, Mitch promised he'd keep in touch with his professor, which he didn't follow through on.Īfter graduation, Mitch moved to New York to pursue his dream of being a professional piano player. Morrie convinced Mitch to write an honors thesis on football culture. Morrie, however, treated him with compassion and kindness, and the two developed a very trusting teacher/student relationship. Mitch was one of the youngest students, which he compensated for by acting very tough. Mitch began college in 1976 at Brandeis University, and met Morrie in his first sociology class. After a failed attempt by Morrie's father to get him a job in a fur factory, Morrie decided to become a teacher.Īt the beginning of each chapter, Mitch shares the story of his relationship with Morrie during his college days.

She gave Morrie both the love he so desperately desired, and instilled in him a love for education. Eva, his stepmother, was kind and loving. His father, Charlie, was not an affectionate man, and Morrie struggled through the next two years until his father remarried. When he was nine, his mother fell ill and died, which haunted Morrie throughout the rest of his life.

Morrie grew up in New York and his family was very poor. His final thesis is the full, completed book. When Mitch’s newspaper union strikes, putting him out of work for an extended period, Mitch travels each week on Tuesday from his home in Detroit to Morrie's home outside Boston for what he calls his final class with Morrie. The primary story arc takes place over the course of 14 weeks in the late summer and fall of 1995, beginning when the narrator Mitch discovers that Morrie, his beloved sociology professor from college, is dying from ALS.

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